IRREDEEMABLE review

(Review by Melody Werner)
Irredeemable is a 2009-2012 series published by BOOM! Studios; written by one of my personal favorite writers, Mark Waid; illustrated by artists such as Peter Krause and son of the late Eduardo Barreto, Diego Barreto. It's about a Superman analogue (or is he?) who goes batshit insane and starts hunting his former compadres. It has a million things going for it, so let's just dig right in.

The art is pretty decent, overall. However, the coloring can be pretty iffy. Like most any other series which have fill-in artists and the like, this means the stylistic jumps can be disappointing at best, jarring at worst. I'd say Irredeemable negates the latter as these artists do a decent job of creating a consistent tone, but that's for you to decide at the end of the day, innit? The character designs are great, especially for some of the bad guys. When it gets to energy attacks, fire, cosmic stuff, etc., the art really shines, however.

Irredeemable's biggest strength, like Waid's previous superb analogue-filled effort, Empire, is indeed the plot itself, though for different reasons. There are tons of plot twists, and all of them are cleverly done--and always give you this sense of delicious satisfaction if you catch onto them; and if you don't, they're huge surprises that can change how you see the comic, and that's a huge boon. Another huge strength is the series's pacing. There's no filler issues--something's always going on, something's always furthering the plot, and if neither of those it's still giving neat backstories for the world the series is set in and its characters so you don't care so much. With all that going on, you can be forgiven for reading this at any pace. Also, the ending is spectacular--it's really clever and I don't want to even risk spoiling it.

The characters of Irredeemable are a lively bunch. While a lot of them are analogues, they are all still likable and/or interesting. For example, Plutonian is an incredible character though he obviously takes inspiration from Superman (however, I think he has more Genis Vell to him than Clark Kent). They're all characterized so well and when the remainder of Paradigm get their small victories towards the beginning of the series, you feel triumphant. The dialogue is very well written, mixing humor with philosophy on a level you could expect from Waid.

If I had to level any criticisms at Irredeemable, I do have two problems. First of all, while a lot's always happening, after the halfway mark-ish it does get all over the place and can be a little hard to follow, though you can still get what's going on so you won't be entirely perplexed. Another is that none of the character deaths have any impact. The few that do are only because you feel bad for the other characters having their friends die--not because you feel torn up over that character's death. There's one really powerful one at the beginning, but after that, I read the rest with a straight face.

Irredeemable is an incredible series and definitely deserves a lot of praise. What Injustice wishes it was. It has a sister series, Incorruptible, also written by Waid, which I plan to read eventually. Irredeemable gets a 9.5/10.

Must-read

Summary:
Irredeemable is an amazing series, primarily due to its writing. The plot, pacing, characters, and dialogue are all excellent, plus the plot twists are all really solid and can actually catch you off guard. The art's decent when looking at it all. It has a small decline in quality with the second half of the series, as it has a bit too much going on and all of the character deaths (excluding one) lack any impact. None of this, however, makes Irredeemable not a spectacular read, and I'd consider it a must-read.

(originally posted: 1/31/2016)